1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a tape printing device, and more particularly, to a tape printing device that can print characters in each of a plurality of printing lines which are made by dividing the printing area across the width of the printing medium tape.
2. Description of Related Art
Heretofore, a number of proposals have been made regarding improvements in small-size tape printers that print desired character strings along a printing tape which is, for example, about 10 mm wide. A tape printer proposed by the applicant of the present application, and disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent No. 1-152070 is capable of printing full size and double size characters, and of selectively printing full size characters either in center printing mode or in lower-side printing mode. In center printing mode, the tape printer prints full size characters at the center of the tape (across its width); in lower-side printing mode, the tape printer prints the characters on the lower-side of the tape (across its width).
In many instances, for example, the tape printer is used to print a title, or information regarding the contents of a given file, onto a printing tape, the printed tape being adhered (pasted) onto an appropriate position of a casing of the file.
However, this conventional printing device is only capable of changing printing position between the center printing mode, wherein characters are printed at the center of the printing tape, and the lower printing mode, wherein characters are printed on the lower side of the printing tape. Therefore, the number of characters which can be printed within a certain predefined length of the tape (the length of the tape is usually defined and limited by the size of a particular pasting position on the file) is restricted to the number of characters which can be printed across the predefined length of the tape. (That is, the total number of characters which can be printed equals the tape length divided by the character width.) Thus the number of characters which can be printed on a length of tape is a function of the pasting position size and the width of characters.
Even if the printing device is capable of printing in an upper printing mode, wherein characters are printed on the upper side of the printing tape, the same problem exists because characters printed in the upper printing mode and characters printed in the lower printing mode are not printed so that characters of the lower line are printed directly below characters of the upper line.